The Los Angeles community was responding Saturday after the Los Angeles Police Department released videos of two officer-involved deaths.
One video released Friday showed a group of officers beating Jose Carlos Hoyos-Munoz, 58, in a San Fernando Valley jail cell before he died.
The video shows officers converging on Hoyos-Munoz, striking him several times and handcuffing him after he behaved erratically in his cell.
The officers placed a hood over Hoyos-Munoz’s head after he spit on them and was uncooperative, an LAPD spokesperson told the Los Angeles Times.
Hoyos-Munoz was struck multiple times while in handcuffs and left lying in his cell with the hood covering his head, the video shows.
Officers later returned to his cell to find Hoyos-Munoz unconscious and not breathing, where he was pronounced dead at the scene.
Hoyos-Munoz was arrested two days prior to his death for allegedly stabbing his mother and another relative, leading to minor injuries, according to the LA Times.
The second video shows officers firing shots and striking Alejandro Luis Garcia, 33, on July 29 on Normandie Avenue below a Santa Monica (10) freeway overpass after he advanced toward officers with a baseball bat and did not comply when told to drop the bat.
Video shows officers yelling ”Drop the weapon! Put it down!” while Garcia advanced. After shots were fired and Garcia stopped advancing, officers continued to instruct Garcia to drop the weapon.
Garcia then fell to the ground and dropped the bat, the video shows. Officers performed CPR on Garcia until he was transported to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Officers initially responded to reports of Garcia armed with a metal bat, having shattered multiple vehicles and attempting to strike passersby, the LAPD said.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass released a statement in response to the two videos authorizing an independent evaluation of officer-involved deaths and severe injuries.
”These two videos were incredibly difficult to watch. People who experience behavioral or mental health crises often do not receive the proper care they desperately need. Without it, they can deteriorate into behavior that can result in severe injury or death,” Bass said. ”Decades of disinvestment in community-based mental and behavioral health services have left too many Angelenos without access to timely and appropriate care, increasing the likelihood that people in crisis will come into contact with law enforcement. LAPD officers do not enter the force to become first responders to mental health crises and are not equipped with the proper training to do so.”
”The tragic deaths of Jose Carlos Hoyos-Munoz and Alejandro Luis Garcia show what can happen when someone in a behavioral health crisis does not get the care they need, and law enforcement is called upon to respond. Mr. Hoyos-Munoz died in custody while he appears to be experiencing a mental health crisis,” Bass added. ”Similarly, Mr. Garcia lost his life in an officer-involved shooting while he also appeared to be experiencing a mental health crisis.”